I’m curious if anybody uses a flat spot on the bottom of their longboards. I am looking at a blank for a 9’6" that describes a flat sweet spot from center to six inches back. Tail rocker is still just over 3.5" and nose rocker about 4.25". This seems to be a nice rocker for our mushy gulf coast waves still allowing good paddling ability and wave entry with turnability. Still, I have read so many posts about rocker needing to be continuous that I wonder what impact a 6" flat spot would have if any. Thoughts?
Texan,
NO IMPACT AT ALL.
The 9’10"H sound just about perfect for you. I’ve looked at it alot, but the nose rocker is way too much for what I’m looking at.
I’m kinda interested in hearing how flat is too flat. As I brought up in another post. I’m looking at the 10’7"H and it’s pretty flat. Something like 1 1/4" of rocker over a 5’ midsection on a 9’6" board. Should be quite fast.
I actually just shaped a 10’7" H. I’m 230lbs and made it thick. It is one big heavy board that will catch anything, but turning it and finding the trim spot requires work. I do think its making a better surfer of me though as I’m working on drop knee turns as there is not really a way to turn it otherwise. I should be upfront that I’m a novice shaper. That being said I have read everything I can on rocker and would like more input on rocker for our very slow & mushy Texas waves. As I understand it, tail rocker causes the nose to lift, therefore noseriders often have more tail rocker giving the nose some pop. If you lower your tail rocker to near nothing, you probably want to increase the nose rocker a bit to compensate as the lower tail rocker is going to cause the board to want to pearl. I’m wanting to make a wave catching machine for Texas that still has good turning ability (not drop knee turns but floaters, etc.). I think the solution is to decrease the front rocker so its about 3.5" but with a bit more flip in the last 12" for chop, and keep the tail rocker about 3.5". The tail rocker should give you enough pop to turn and to help with pearling which is not a big issue for us while the lower nose rocker gives you paddling speed which helps catch our mushy waves easily. I also think that nose concaves would be counterproductive on our waves as they are intended to slow the board while giving lift. You obviously need some speed for the theory to work and when catching a wave, all the concave does is push water and restrict your ability to catch our waves easily. I surf two very similar boards one with and one without and that is what I have noticed. Anyhow, I’m a novice and am looking for advice and thoughts on my theories.
Reverse those rockers. And make the 4+" tail rocker come up in just the last 3’ or so, not from midpoint-back. Mushburger special.
Texan, Your still way a head of me on building boards. Just so you know I’m looking to build my first and the 10’7"H looks to be my starting grounds.
How big of a board did you make out of it? Which rocker layout did you get? The natural, +3/4"N +1/4"T or the +7/8"T Or did you custom order your rocker?
You made this a single fin? Where did you place your fin in the box?
Do you have pictures?
I took very little off and made it a 10’6", 24" width, 7" square tail. Its just under 3.75" in the middle, keeping the natural rocker. No pictures at the moment. I will say that for your first board, a bit smaller board may be the way to go. While you give up some foam to work with, you will have less area to glass which will give you more time with your glass which is nice. Such a big board takes a lot of work to cover and work the laps on.
A sweet spot can be positioned most anywhere on the board but it might not be where you calculated if you are relying on nothing more than a flat spot in the rocker. Heck, it might not be where you calculated even after considering all the other variables.
The SFoam blank, to which you might be referring, looks to me to be a well proportioned blank for your purposes. The sweet spot might even end up being where they have placed the flat spot depending on other variables.
For good paddling, wave catching and turning, you might throw in a wide point behind center along with a wide and curvy tail template. Maybe even place the thickness back a little?
I’ve found that a flattened area behind the tail rocker apex may give a little more oomph in slow waves. The tail rocker measured at the end is the same but the last couple of feet is flatter with a more sudden break at the apex. This causes the wave to lift the tail as you’re paddling in and once you rock back on the tail during a turn, it can give a nice burst of speed as the tail section of the board planes rather than sucks as in many common nose rider designs. You’ve essentially placed a mini sweet spot at the tail.
If you can blend the maximum rail thickness somewhere near the tail rocker apex, you might have a sweet spot right where you normally stand with only minimal weight shifts fore and aft required for turning or trimming even on a board that long.
yeah, people have mentioned that to me, but I really have no interest in owning another small board. I have a 6’4" Hobie Slug Fish and I never ride it. Maybe 5x’s in two years. Now if I could sell it. I might be interested in making a 7’ or 7’6" Egg based off the template I took from the Hobie and make it a single fin.
I’d still rather build a board I’ll ride. What’s another 4’ of lap work? Although no surfbopard building exp. I in the finnising stages of building a 16’ boat. All hand glassed 18oz Biax in epoxy. 6oz. Eglass has to much easier to work with.
You nailed the blank I’m looking at. Thank you for the information it is very helpful. My debate is whether to go with the rocker as is or modify it. I keep wanting to modify it thinking it needs something, but the more I study it the more I think it will work fine as is.
Quote:
I’ve found that a flattened area behind the tail rocker apex may give a little more oomph in slow waves.
Any cons to this in larger waves (say headhigh)?
regards,
Håvard
Hi Haavard -
Sure, in bigger, gutsy waves a flattened area in the tail will want to suck up the face and maybe cause control issues when taking the drop.
In the old spiral vee design, some boards actually had a reverse rocker thing going on behind the apex but those usually had a pulled in tail outline.
There are reasons behind the quiver of a pro and reasons behind a general purpose, “everyday rider” type of board.